Polly O'leary

SBA, Dip SBA (Dist)

Adventures in Botanical Art

Friday, 24 April 2015

After months of planning, drawing and painting, the time finally
arrived to get everything photographed, framed, and take a trip to Westminster Central Hall, London, to submit my paintings for the SBA annual exhibition - In Pursuit of Plants.

Framing sounds easy, but framing properly is an art in itself and takes about three times as long as you think it will. Luckily everything fitted together well. There was just time for a little judicious tweaking of colour and tonal values before the paintings were finally framed.

Packing the frames for transport was made vastly easier by the purchase of some high tech bubble wrap. By the time we'd finished, we looked like the Jetson's off on a trip.

Space Age packaging - Jetson style

The space age packaging worked really well and all the paintings arrived in pristine condition despite a trip in the car boot and on the tube.

Unpacking was a doddle too with the purpose made packing. Handing in was weird, I'd never entered paintings for an exhibition before and handing my 'babies' over and leaving them felt very strange.

Then the long wait to find out if they'd made the grade, as it's a juried exhibition.... what seemed like an age passed but in reality it was barely any time at all, when the phone call came.

All my paintings had been accepted and I was offered Associateship of the SBA as well! I had to sit down for that as it really wasn't expected.

Then the very long wait for the exhibition date. Another phonecall informed me that, wait for it, I had received a Highly Commended for the Joyce Cuming Award, I think I may have squealed with excitement, but can't be sure. It was lovely to get the letter confirming it all, just to prove it wasn't all a dream and the icing on the cake was that four of my paintings were to be hung.

So
many people to meet and so many superb paintings to see. The whole
time seemed to disappear in a whirlwind. There never seems to be enough
time, especially when it's
something enjoyable and this is what I found when I went to the SBA
Exhibition - In Pursuit of Plants.

Luckily there are some who are well prepared and take a camera and also take notes.

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About Me

I paint plants, sometimes I paint the critters that live on plants and munch them. Sometimes the critters that live on the plants like to bite me instead of the plants, which can be painful. Occasionally, the people I live with like to eat what I'm painting, which can be frustrating.
Keeping a sketchbook, I get to study the plants in depth and really get to know them before progressing to painting 'on the good paper'. There is so much wonder in a leaf, and so many different colours! I also love colour, of flowers, buds, hairs, spines, and of the paints - so many different colours to play and experiment with...